Suunto Smart Watch?

Suunto just released a bunch of smart watches!

You know, a murder is a flock of crows… I figure it applies to describe a flock of smart watches that doesn’t really make sense.

At their home page, Suunto just released a huge group of new semi-smart watches that are for those that care about fashion – much more than a simple bright blue Ambit3 Sport. It’s funny how all the sudden Suunto, and some other watch makers are creating new designer style watches to respond to Apple’s Watch which will be released in April.

SUUNTO ESSENTIAL COLLECTION

Is the new Suunto line fashion or function? Or both?

and…

So, what do you think? Oh, wait. I was overwhelmed by the beauty… I forgot to mention function.

They have a barometric altimeter, compass, measure outdoor temperature and sense storms on the way. They are waterproof to 30 meters. They do not have GPS or Heart Rate Monitor. So, they look great, but they are not really for athletes that need the essentials.

Here’s more about what they do:

General Specifications for the Essentials Collection

Water resistance 30 m (ISO 6425)

Battery life in time mode 12 months

Battery type: CR2032

User replaceable battery

Time, date

Alarm clock 1 daily alarm

Dual time

Countdown timer

Stopwatch timer

UI languages EN, DE, ES, FR

Backlight electro-luminescent

Configurable backlight activation: 1 button, all buttons

Button lock

Display type matrix

Battery indicator low battery indicator

Metric and imperial units

Compass Feature

Digital compass

Direction scale degrees

Needle north indicator

Bearing lock with orienting indicator

Compass accuracy: 5°

Compass resolution: 1°

Physical Environmental Tolerances

Operating temperature -20° C to +60° C / -5° F to +140° F

Storage temperature -30° C to +60° C / -22° F to +140° F

Diving – Waterproof Feature

Depth meter for snorkeling or diving: 10 m

Altimeter

Barometric altitude

Altitude graph

Total meters ascent and descent is air pressure based

Altitude difference

Log recording rate 1, 5, 10, 30, 60 s

Resolution: 1 m

Range: -500 to +9000 m

Weather Functions

Sea level pressure

Sea level pressure graph

Weather trend indicator

Temperature

Temperature display range: -20° C to +60° C / -4° F to +140° F

Sunrise and sunset times

Automatic altimeter-barometer profile

Storm alarm

Pressure resolution: 1hPa/0.05 inHg

Temperature resolution to 1°

Maximum weather recording length: 7 days

So yeah, you probably are not going to buy one. I think Suunto is trying to expand its market here. It’s a bold move considering this watch is not such a smart watch, it’s more of a fashionable survival watch or something. I don’t know what the demographic is that they’re targeting. Athletes won’t buy these to wear while they’re not wearing their Ambit3 or Ambit4 watches. I couldn’t see packing two watches when I travel. I absolutely love my Ambit2 R GPS – heart rate monitor watch. I will likely buy another Suunto within the next year, maybe the Ambit4 will hit the streets this year?

Here’s one of the pages revealing the new Suunto Essentials Collection at the official Suunto site – Suunto Essential Copper (click).

What do you think? Would you buy one of these new Suunto Essential Collection watches?

Entire Collection – browse to see what the current prices are:

What about a different style – the Ambit2 R or the Ambit3, or even Ambit4…

Or, just get Garmin… that’s what I’m doing as soon as this Suunto falls apart for good.